Friday, February 14, 2014

Touts for a girlfriends' trip to Vegas

I know: What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas. But the girlfriends' trip I just took with my friend Carol begs to be shared, and there were no errant lions involved (although a fellow from Toronto did try to pick me up while I was playing a Zeus machine in the Bellagio. I scampered.)

Here's some stuff you should know:

1. Vdara remains a great place to stay on the Strip, because it's restful and quiet (on the upper floors, anyway) with no clanging of slots to jangle you as you make your way home. The beds and bedding are little cocoons. I like to crank down the AC and really snuggle in. Blackout curtains keep Vegas out. IMPORTANT: The hair dryer is hiding in the little hidden drawer under the sink. The newly rebranded ESPA's treatments rock. My facial gave new meaning to saving face. After two days in Vegas, my inner bulldog was surfacing on my face. ESPA products specifically target lines (they call them fine lines; mine aren't all fine). Also: Bar Vdara is picking up steam as a hang, and the staff's great. Happy hour is 11 to 4, so it's a good lunch spot.

2. Speaking of happy hour, Carol and I made a meal out of three happy hours in Aria. We started at Julian Serrano, proceeded to American Fish and finished at Sirio. All wonderful, but I think the seared scallops at American Fish might have been the night's favorites. Cheap small plates and wine (and sangria at JS) added up to about $50, with tips, for each of us at the end of the evening. Pretty swell.

3. More great eats: Try the amazingly tender octopus and the beef checks (melt-in-your-mouth and served with tongue, so write your own pun) at Sensi...any steak and the pork belly app at Heritage Steak (both of those are at Bellagio, btw)...Shrimp Saganaki at Cosmopolitan's Milos....Fish tacos and first-rate margaritas at Chayo in the new Linq next to the Flamingo.

4. Speaking of the Linq, its Polaroid Museum and more stores open March 1. No word on when the 550-foot High Roller, the big Ferris Wheel, will open, but I'm hearing sometime in March. They could spring it on us, but it's still being tested. Lots of partying around it will take place Memorial Day weekend.

5. The airport needs better signage. Finding baggage claim in the airport always confounds me, and I'm there once a year.

6. Do not try to walk down the steps from Vdara to Harmon to get to Cosmopolitan.  You'll wind up, as we did, finding breaks in traffic in which to scramble down the gutters of Las Vegas Blvd. Very, very bad idea. Instead, walk through Crystals and take the skybridge. Yes, it shouldn't be that hard a route. But, yes, it's that hard.

7. Be aware the Culinary Union doesn't want you in Cosmo (which hates being called that) at all and tends to picket on Fridays.

8. Amazing show to catch: Michael Jackson One, the newest Cirque Show. It's great spectacle. Not as much acrobatic stuff as in, say, O -- but just eye-popping. Zombies dancing through the audience. A holographic Michael. People bouncing off the ceilings. I might have to see it again to catch what I missed, because a lot happens at once. That one's at the Mandalay. And I got from Vdara to Mandalay without a cab by using two trams and feet, but I did get lost in Monte Carlo.

Doesn't everybody?




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